Monthly Archives: February 2018

Inspiration at Perth Writers Week

Congratulations to Will Yeoman as guest curator of the 2018 Perth Writers Week.

My head is still spinning from all the great writers I heard. And isn’t that what a good festival does?   It inspires us; it educates us and it entertains us. It also provides time for new or different ideas to be presented.

One of the highlights for me was listening to Kim Scott (Taboo) and Helen Garner (Everywhere I look) in conversation.  These are two of Australia’s literary giants.  It was an interesting pairing – but what a rich evening they provided for the sold out crowd at the Octagon Theatre in Perth.   It was also obvious how much they respected and admired each other’s work.

Helen-Garner_Kim-Scott_Hero-768x432

Helen Garner and Kim Scott

Tim Winton’s solo performance about his new book The shepherd’s hut and his powerful interwoven messages that society has failed young boys because they have ­remained trapped in an idea of manhood that is toxic, was fascinating and quite disturbing. I thought about the implications as I made my way home.

I came away inspired from a session with Liz Byrski, Rob Dessaix and Alex Miller, who discussed creativity in later years. They reaffirmed to me that I have a bright future ahead and gave me permission to become more selfish with my own time, say no and even be a little bit rude!

I was lucky enough to interview three women from the Arab world: Manal Al-Sharif, Amal Awad and Tess Woods. With Palestinian, Egyptian and Saudi Arabian heritages the conversation showed the audience life from three different countries and cultures. It was an informative, amusing and sometimes poignant conversation. I recommend all three books – Daring to Drive, Beyond the veiled clichés and Beautiful Messy love.  All would be great book club reads.  I’ll have a review of Daring to Drive up soon, as I spent another hour with Manal in a different session discussing her life and activism in more depth.

So hats off to all in the Perth Writers Week program. Reading ideas abound!

 

Manal Tess and Amal

Manal Al-Sharif, Amal Awad and Tess Woods

 

 

Writers Week is here

The Perth Writers Week is almost here. It starts on Monday 19 February and runs until Sunday 25 February.  I am pleased to be involved again this year, and particularly to be chairing two discussions that demonstrate, once again, that there is always more to the story.

On Sunday I will be interviewing Saudi Arabian woman Manal Al-Sharif who is best known for her YouTube videos for the Women2Drive campaign.

Manal campaigns for women’s rights. Her life story of being raised under a religion of strict fundamentalism to her change to an activist who fights women’s equality in a society that is unequal is incredible. Her book Daring to Drive is a story of resilience. I can’t wait for the conversation.

Manal will also be participating on panel conversation on Saturday called ‘Free to Love, Free to Learn’.  She is joined by Amal Awad who has written a book that is a must read for anyone who wants to understand the Middle East. It’s called Beyond Veiled Clichés. The third participant is Tess Woods who draws on her Egyptian heritage, cross cultural marriage and her insider’s knowledge of professional football (She’s a physio in her day job). Her book is called Beautiful Messy Love and is set in Western Australia.

Will Yeoman, who is curating his first festival, has also catered for my love of crime writing.   I re-unite with Alan Carter who splits his time between Australia and New Zealand these days. We’ll be discussing his new book Marlborough Man at a free event on Wednesday at the fabulous Perth city library.

The full program is available on line or you can pick up a free, easy to read, printed program from most good bookstores. If you are not in Western Australia, some of the Perth Writers Week sessions will be recorded by ABC radio and available as podcasts.

I’ll see you there.